The Uttarakamikagama text provides sufficient details of the iconography of Vinayaka (another name for Ganesha). According to this text, and as depicted here, Vinayaka, the chief of the ganas, has an elephant face, a protruding belly and wears a nagayajnopavita. He has four arms, a single tusk and ears like a fan. He is seated over a lotus seat. He is holding a noose and an arrow in two of his arms. The other right hand is held in the posture of granting boons. The fourth hand holds a jack-fruit or a modak, signifying bounty.
Seated in the center of the lotus against a huge bolster is a splendidly bedecked Ganesha. The nimbus around his head is pale and coordinates with the rest of the color scheme. Local influences are reflected in certain modifications of the iconography. Ganesha wears a jeweled turban, replete with a sarpech and a plume, typical of the Kishangarh school. The turban has been adapted in favor of the karanda-mukuta, he is normally depicted in. On his forehead, he wears the tilak of Shiva and on the neck, he wears a garland of kalpalata, besides numerous strings of pearls. The trunk curves towards the right. The artist has employed all the above with considerable effect as a foil to the delicate painting of the face. The potbelly of the elephant god is concealed by the nagayajnopavita and the garland.
Surrounding the deity is the paradise like milieu, with banana plantains in the background, the green of which is well complimented by the blue curling clouds. In the foreground is the sacred pond with pure lotus flowers and leaves.
This description by Renu Rana.
Once it so happened that the people on earth were preparing for a special feast. In a village house, someone had set out an enormous platter of modakas to cool. "Aha!" cried Ganesha, when the aroma reached him, his trunk twitching in delight. He hurried to the thatched house, and slipped in unobserved through the back-door. Making himself comfortable he then began to help himself with the modakas.
Soon even his tremendous belly was filled. Ganesha looked at the platter. "There are still some left," he remarked in surprise. He picked up the last few modakas and stuffed them into his mouth.
"That was good," he said, climbing on to the mouse's back. "Let us go." The mouse started up obediently.
At that very moment a snake slithered across the threshold. The mouse startled, tripped, and his master went flying off his back.
Alas, Ganesha's great stomach was like a sack that is too full and can hold no more. When his body hit the ground, his stomach burst, spilling modakas in every direction.
"Oh master, forgive me," said the mouse. "You are hurt."
"Shhh," said Ganesha, reaching out for the spilled modakas and hurriedly trying to put them back into his stomach. "No one saw this happen."
Looking around for something to hold his belly together, he saw the snake, still in the doorway.
"The very thing," said Ganesha, and he picked up the snake and tied it around his waist like a belt, to hold in the modakas and keep his belly closed.
He still wears the snake around his middle.
This description by Nitin Kumar, Executive Editor, Exotic India.
References:
Krishnaswami, Uma. The Broken Tusk, Stories of the Hindu God Ganesha: Calcutta, Rupa & Co, 1997.
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